Google DeepMind published the Nano Banana 2.1 model card on October 6, 2026. It is part of the Gemini 3 family, based on Gemini 3.6 Flash, and accepts text, images, video and PDFs while returning images and text. Google positions it as a high-efficiency model for image generation and multi-turn editing.
Official docs say it improves visual quality, prompt adherence, character consistency and text rendering versus the prior Flash image model, and it can use Search grounding. Distribution includes the Gemini app, Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, Search AI Mode, Ads, Flow and Stitch.
If you need posters, infographics or product shots quickly and then refine them in chat, Nano Banana 2.1 is the speed-and-cost oriented option. For maximum image quality, Google still points to Nano Banana Pro as the higher-tier counterpart.